Silver Linings
by Cantanatova
Summary: The Tri-Wizard tournament meant trouble, Hermione just knew it. After all, it was cancelled due to the spiralling number of student deaths, and given the previous three years at Hogwarts it was too much to hope that it would go well. The only silver lining was that Harry shouldn’t be involved this time…
1. Into the Woods

**Silver Linings**

 **The inspiration for this story came from reading Eclairs by Flaignhan – I recommend going to read it if you appreciate this story, as theirs is much much better – but that's where I got the idea of slightly egotistical, cheeky Cedric from. I also think, given that his death is such a major plot point, that he really didn't get enough book time in GOF and I thought I'd start this and see where it went.**

Hermione Granger shifted in her bed, trying to adjust to the narrow cot she was lying on in the small room she was sharing with Ginny Weasley. Ginny's breathing was soft and even, indicating she was still fast asleep. Hermione envied her slightly, she would have preferred to keep sleeping but was instead gazing out the window at the still dark sky. She wasn't sure what time it was but thought to herself that there was no point trying to get back to sleep when Molly Weasley would be coming in at any moment to wake them. They were due to have an early start in order to get to the Quidditch World Cup, the anticipation of which probably explained why she was awake so early.

Soon enough, she heard the door crack open and Molly came in, floating a tray behind her. "Awake already?" She murmured, passing Hermione a mug of tea from the tray. Hermione just nodded, sitting up and wrapping her hands around the brew. "I'll be waking the boys up in a moment, be downstairs in fifteen minutes." Molly murmured, shaking Ginny awake gently and giving her a mug as well. With that she disappeared and Hermione had a moment to just sip her tea whilst gathering her thoughts.

The two girls were silent as they got ready, neither being awake enough to talk to each other. With a nod they started downstairs. A low rumble from the dining room told them that some of the household were already up, and on entering Hermione saw Fred, George, Ron and Harry sat around the table with Arthur standing by the window that overlooked the Burrow's garden. Molly bustled in from the kitchen to send a bowl of porridge towards Ginny, now climbing into a seat at the table, and to Hermione who stayed standing by the door they had entered by. There was a moment of tranquillity as all the family silently went to work on their breakfasts. The next moment, the peace was shattered.

"George! What's that in your pocket?!"

When they finally left the house, leaving an irate Mrs Weasley behind with a pile of Ten-Ton Toffees, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. It had been just a bit too much for that early in the morning, with only one cup of tea and a couple of mouthfuls of porridge for sustenance. Looking back at the Burrow, she could see lights on in a couple of the bedrooms and realised that Mrs Weasley's mini rampage had probably awoken the rest of the house's occupants. Even those who could apparate had not been able to avoid the early start. She was soon brought back from her thoughts when she stumbled over a tussock in the dark, and instead turned her attention to the ground which was becoming increasingly rough as they left the Burrow behind. Soon she was trekking steeply uphill, trying not to fall over the uneven ground and leaning on Ginny for support. Hermione had to acknowledge she was really not as fit as she should be, all the Weasleys (except for Ginny, but she thought that was probably just sympathy from the younger girl) were far ahead of her whilst she was wheezing at the back.

As Hermione finally reached the top of Stoatshead Hill and managed to catch a breath, she saw that the rest of the family were already greeting two other figures. The first, a tall boy with light brown hair she recognised easily as Cedric Diggory, Hogwart's resident heart throb (according to Ginny at least). Hermione assumed that the other man was a relation, probably Cedric's father, they had the same facial structure and were a similar build. Cedric wears it better though Hermione thought, then stamped on the traitorous thoughts about the Hufflepuff. On moving closer she realised that the twins and Ron were bristling at something the older Diggory was saying whilst Harry looked uneasy. Cedric also stood awkwardly, hands in pockets. He looked up and caught Hermione's eye with a slight grimace, which turned into full on embarrassment as the other wizard, definitely his father Hermione decided, made a loud comment about Harry falling off a broom.

Luckily the party was then distracted by the hunt for the Portkey – any old rubbish apparently, which did not make it easy to spot on a hill covered with the remains of a teenager's party – before Mr Diggory loudly called everyone over whilst waving an old boot. They all huddled around it, trying to touch it in some way, while Mr Weasley counted down to the Portkey time.

Portkey, Hermione decided, was not a comfortable way to travel. As if the jerking and spinning sensation wasn't enough, slamming into the ground was the icing on the top. At least she wasn't the only one, she thought looking around the tangled limbs. Only Mr Weasley, Mr Diggory and Cedric were still standing.

She was trying to get her bearings when a hand appeared in her view. Attached the hand was an arm, a rather muscular arm, with a smiling Cedric Diggory on the end of it. For a short moment, as she looked into eyes so pale blue they appeared grey, she allowed herself a moment to see the attraction that caused half the school to drool whenever he walked by. She mentally shook herself and allowed herself to be helped up, but then snatched her hand back as quickly as possible with a hurried "Thanks". She was distracted at that point by a ministry official noting their arrival and campsite number, relieved to be away from the intense gaze of the older student. Soon after, the Diggorys and the Weasleys went separate ways as they were staying in different campsites.

She watched, slightly alarmed, when Mr Weasley arranged for the payment of the site. She intervened when she realised that he was about to pay the man with fifty pound notes. Mr Roberts, the campsite owner, was getting very suspicious of the wizards but Hermione was horrified that instead of making a better attempt to act like muggles they instead used casual obliviation. Even Mr Weasley was doing a pretty bad job of pretending to be a muggle, despite his best intentions.

She was soon distracted by her thoughts when she saw the campsite. The vast array of wizarding tents on display was incredible, with a multitude of flags in every colour imaginable flying to show support for some quidditch team or another. She didn't recognise most of them, though the glaring orange of Ron's favourite team was hard to miss. There were posters of different players dotted around, mostly wearing green for Ireland or black for Bulgaria. There was one face who dominated all the others both by number of posters and for the scowling expression, a contrast to the wide smiles on all the others. She was told by an awestruck Ron that this was Victor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker and supposed quidditch prodigy.

Reaching the campsite, Mr Weasley announced they would be putting up the tents without magic. Hermione looked dubiously at the tent designated for her and Ginny, which seemed both small and very dated, but she set about putting it up anyway. With her instructing Ginny, the two girls had the tent up fairly easily and certainly much more quickly that the boys, who were being hindered instead of helped by Mr Weasley. With Hermione and Harry's help they soon managed to erect both tents, although from the outside they did not look as though they would sleep ten people between them. One step inside the girl's tent though, and Hermione's jaw dropped. While they most certainly looked like muggle tents from the outside, inside they were magical. There was a small seating area with a little stove, a kitchenette complete with breakfast bar and a full bathroom. The bedroom had two sets of bunk beds, two of which were made up for her and Ginny. She exited the tent looking for Harry who was emerging from his tent with the same expression of wonder she was sure she was sporting. Perhaps it was because she was muggleborn and Harry was muggle raised, but she sometimes felt that they shared an appreciation for the magic that Ron just didn't understand.

As they sat by the fire later that afternoon many ministry officials came over to talk to Mr Weasley as they were moving around the site, although she thought some of them may have been using the excuse to get a closer look at Harry Potter. Some stayed for a while but others hurried past, trying to sort out the many minor issues that were arising with so many witches and wizards in one location.

Hermione just watched it all and taking it in, tiredness from the early start taking over as they sat there drinking tea. She even thought about having a quick nap but there was just so much to see.

Eventually, Mr Weasley stood and smiled at the family, gesturing for them to move towards the woods behind the tent. There were lights everywhere illuminating the way to a gigantic stadium that towered above the trees. Hermione could only gaze at it in awe. It was time for the Quidditch World Cup.


	2. Quidditch World Cup

**Quidditch World Cup**

 **This is still a bit slow and follows canon, but it will pick up soon, I promise! I'm going to try to post at least one a week, so we should get to some good stuff soon.** **I forgot the disclaimer last time, that sadly none of this belongs to me.**

It felt to Hermione that they had been climbing forever. The number of stairs they had to climb inside the stadium made Stoatshead Hill seem insignificant, and even the twins were short of breath when they finally reached the top. Hermione was clutching a stitch, gasping as she tried to fill her lungs and ignore her burning legs.

"Surely you could install a lift!" She cried, still bent double. Mr Weasley just looked at her sympathetically before waving the family towards the front row of the box. As soon as Hermione straightened up she forgot about her tiredness, or her aching muscles. The view was – and there was no other word for it – spectacular. They were as high above the pitch as it was possible to go, with only the great arching roof above them. They were seated in the box with no less than the Minister of Magic himself, with such a panoramic view that it made Hermione's knees tremble and she plonked herself quickly into the seat Mr Weasley indicated for her.

She didn't quite know how everybody else could be so comfortable with the heights. Some, like Harry, she knew just didn't feel the fear. For those that grew up around magic perhaps they were so used to cushioning charms and other assorted means to save them that it just wasn't an issue. Hermione filed that thought away into the vast collection of 'how muggleborns view the world differently to those raised as wizards' that she had been building over the last three years.

Her fear diminished as she sat in the comfortable chairs and to distract herself further she picked up the copy of the programme she found tucked under her seat. The teams and players didn't mean much to her, but something soon caught her eye.

"A display from the team mascots will precede the match." She stated, gaining Harry and Ron's attention.

"Oh that is usually worth watching." Mr Weasley commented, going on to say that the teams usually brought some creatures from their own nation.

After a distraction when the Malfoys arrived, sneering down their rather large, pointy noses at her and the Weasleys, they got ready to start the game. The excitement in the crowds was palpable now and Hermione couldn't help but be swept along with it, jiggling her leg as she waited for the game to begin.

At that point a rather large man wearing horrendously garish black and yellow robes stood up, effectively silencing all further discussion. Hermione recognised him as Ludo Bagman, a former quidditch player who had visited their camp fire earlier. She peered through the omnioculars at the crowd, trying to see if she could recognise anyone she knew from Hogwarts. They had met quite a few people earlier in the day but she couldn't pick out any faces she knew from the masses. She turned back towards the pitch when Ludo called the arrival of the Bulgarian mascots. Zooming through the omnioculars, Hermione saw a swarm of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. Their silver blond hair cascaded down their back and their features _couldn't_ be human.

She was about to comment to Harry, when she saw him standing in his seat, one leg resting on the wall and hands coiled. "What are you doing, Harry?"

Harry blinked, seemingly dazed, looking at Hermione with confusion on his face. Ron was similarly poised on the edge of the box in a diving pose, which would have been comedic if it wasn't a gigantic drop on to the crowds below. Mr Weasley commented quietly to Hermione that it was the effect of the Veela – so definitely not human, she thought smugly – whilst he reached out to stop Ron shredding his Ireland hat. Looking around the top box, Hermione noted that most of the adults were unaffected, many having blocked their ears when they saw the Veela emerge. Much to her amusement she saw Draco Malfoy standing, his chest puffed up in a similar pose to one she'd seen Percy do hundreds of times when he was Head Boy. As she watched, Lucius Malfoy pulled his son down and muttered darkly to him. Hermione pulled Harry down into his seat whilst gazing in fascination at the veela, now stalking one end of the pitch, when Ludo announced the Irish mascots.

A wave of green and gold hit the pitch, large gold coins suddenly raining hard on then all as leprechauns soared over the spectators. Ron grabbed some with glee, thrusting them at Harry to pay him for merchandise purchased earlier. Hermione frowned and opened her mouth to tell him that leprechaun gold vanished after a short while, but just then the Bulgarian quidditch team were announced.

Like almost everyone else in the stadium, Hermione wanted to get a glimpse of Krum. She had heard so much about him, mostly from Ron, that she was curious about the talented player. He wasn't conventionally attractive, but there was something in his intense gaze as he flew that she found appealing. She was so focused on the Bulgarian seeker she almost missed the arrival of the Irish players, a blur of green whipping past as they congregated in a huddle near the lines where the leprechauns had seated themselves.

And then, the game was on. Hermione would be the first to admit that her following of Quidditch was basic at best, but even she could tell that this was a game played several levels above anything she had ever seen at Hogwarts. Although if Harry played full time she could see him one day attaining this standard; it made her realise how good her friend really was at the sport.

Plays whizzed past her in a blur and soon Ireland had scored. From there should could barely follow what was happening until, in a moment that took her breath away, the two seekers plummeted towards the ground through the centre of the other players. Even at this level, the game almost stopped as both teams watched their seekers. The speed they were going was incredible and they were getting so close to the ground. "They're going to crash!"

The Irish seeker did, hitting the ground at nearly top speed and seemingly being knocked out. Krum, however, pulled out of the dive at the last possible moment, his toes skimming the surface as he fought the broom back upwards. Hermione kept her eyes focused on the seeker on the ground, being attended by mediwizards who were dosing him with an array of bright potions.

The game only got more intense. The two groups of mascots were increasingly hostile until they were almost at all out war, and the play got dirtier and dirtier. This was especially true of the Bulgarian team, who could not find a way to disrupt the Irish chasers. Lynch and Krum were trying to keep out of the way, until a bludger managed to hit Krum right in the face. The referee at this point was trying to manage the fighting mascots and didn't call a break. The next moment, the seekers were diving again. Harry next to her was shouting "He's seen the snitch!" and sure enough, whilst the Irish seeker went straight into the ground again (this time being trampled by veela for good measure) Krum rose into the air bearing the tiny golden snitch aloft in his hand.

Ludo Bagman was shouting the results – Ireland had won, despite Krum's success. But, as Harry sagely pointed out, the Irish chasers had the game sewn up from the outset and this was the best the Bulgarian team could hope for.

As the teams came up to the Top Box to collect the prize, Hermione got a further chance to study Krum. He was as ungainly on the ground as he was superb in the air, reminding Hermione a bit of a penguin on land. It didn't help that he was still bleeding significantly from what looked like a broken nose due to the bludger. As he came into the box, his eyes swept around the occupants and for the briefest moment connected with hers. His eyes were dark brown, almost appearing black under the glare in the box. The Irish team then crowded in, hoisting the World Cup above their heads and cheering loudly. It was impossible not to be swept up in the jubilation.

She enjoyed the after-match discussion with the whole Weasley family, and she took the opportunity to talk to Bill about his job (more interesting to her than discussing the game after an hour of it). They talked and laughed around the fire, until Ginny let loose a massive yawn and prompted them all to head towards their tents.

Hermione didn't expect to sleep at all, but was exhausted after her early start and soon drifted off in the small tent she shared with Ginny. Her dreams that night were full of seekers and brooms, and of large nosed men who eyes started dark before transitioning to grey-blue…and then she was being shaken awake by a worried Mr Weasley.


	3. Hogwarts Express

**Hogwarts Express**

 **I've kept this chapter fairly short in order to get it up sooner, hopefully the next one will come along quite quickly too. Please let me know how you think it's going and, as ever, I own nothing from Harry Potter.**

The next week passed in a blur. The events of the quidditch World Cup and everything that happened afterwards – Winky the house elf, the dark mark, Mrs Weasley sobbing – were going around in Hermione's head. She had asked Bill Weasley about house elves, hoping that the eldest brother would have something more interesting to say than Ron's less than helpful contribution. Unfortunately, as the Weasleys had never owned house elves, Bill couldn't be much help. "Well they are supposed to really love working, and they see it as an honour to serve a wizarding family."

"But surely that must be because they are brainwashed! If they don't know anything else then how can they make an educated decision?"

"I don't know, Hermione," Bill spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I really don't know much about it, but there must be something that wizards do for elves in return." With that Bill left Hermione to it, not much more informed than she had been before she'd asked him and frustrated by the lack of information on house elves.

Otherwise, the house was quiet, worried. Mr Weasley and Percy were at the ministry for almost all hours, the tension could be felt all over the Burrow but no more so than in Mrs Weasleys terse shoulders as she bustled around her chores.

Instead of the whole household going to Diagon Alley, Mrs Weasley went alone. Hermione had received her letter before she had arrived at the Weasleys, so she had already been shopping with her mother to buy a formal dress as stipulated in the instructions for this year. They had had a lot of fun, in one of their rare opportunities to do something together, and had chosen a floaty blue dress that Hermione had reassured her mum she would be able to alter if she grew too much before she had the chance to wear it. She did pull Mrs Weasley aside to ask her to pick up a bottle of Sleakeazys hair spray though, along with the standard magical books and supplies. As they'd gone to so much trouble buying a dress she figured she could probably spare the time to sort her hair out too.

The morning they were due to return to Hogwarts, Hermione was awake before Mrs Weasley's wake up call again. This time she was still thinking about the unfair treatment of the house elves. She needed more information, and she needed to make other muggleborns aware of the slavery in their midst. She had found out, when questioning the various family members, that there were house elves at Hogwarts! How somewhere like Hogwarts could justify the use of unpaid labour was almost unbelievable to her, she thought she may be able to get a protest group together if she tried.

She was still thinking about who to talk to first as she wandered down the stairs to breakfast, packed trunk bumping along behind her. Mr Weasley nearly flattened her as he rushed past, calling a hurried goodbye. She looked quizzically at the boys as she entered the kitchen, Ron mouthed 'ministry' back to her. Nodding in understanding, she sat down and helped herself to breakfast, passing some to Ginny as the younger girl sat down beside her.

It was definitely one of the most stressful journeys to King's Cross that Hermione could remember. They had all walked to the local village to catch taxis – probably at a horrendous cost, particularly given the presence of Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks – that they somehow managed to shove six trunks into, and settled in for the long journey from the West Country to London.

After a quick goodbye to Mrs Weasley, Bill and Charlie (who were dropping some tantalising hints regarding an event at Hogwarts) the students boarded the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Hermione and Ron found themselves in an unoccupied compartment and settled in for the journey.

Before long Hermione excused herself from the boys, who were occupied playing exploding snap anyway, and travelled down the train. She came across a compartment with the rest of the Gryffindors from her year and went in to say hello. After the usual greetings, she asked them all about house elves and house elf rights.

Almost immediately Seamus switched off, muttering that they didn't have enough money for one and instead drew Parvati into a discussion about her summer. Dean at least listen while Hermione explained her view on house elves to him, but as she was finishing she heard Lavender snort next to her.

"I'm sorry Hermione, but house elves live what they do! And if they didn't do their jobs, witches would have to!" Lavender looked horrified by the thought, whereas Dean just shrugged at Hermione and joined in the conversation with Seamus. Hermione looked to Neville as her last resort.

"I've never really thought about it that much…but they are usually very happy. Can it be so very wrong?"

Hermione felt like screaming. She stomped out the compartment and walked off down the train in search of more inspiration. Ernie MacMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff passed her, greeting her as they went by. She stopped suddenly and called back after them. "Justin, as a fellow muggleborn have you ever come across house elves?"

She went on to tell him about the brain washing of house elves and how they were enslaved by wizards. As she had nearly finished, and before she even was able to ask Justin to help her with her plan to fight for elf freedom (and she was sure he would, Hufflepuffs were known to be bleeding hearts) she was interrupted by Ernie snorting. This was an unusual sound from the normally pompous boy, so she stopped mid rant to look at him.

"I'm sorry Hermione," Ernie began, in his stately way of speaking. "But house elves garner great satisfaction from working for witches and wizards. To tell them they are brain washed and therefore unable to judge for themselves is treating them in the same manner you are insinuating that all wizarding families currently do. Now, if you'll excuse me." Ernie slipped into a compartment, and with a slightly apologetic glance Justin followed him sliding the door shut behind him.

Hermione kicked the wall outside the closed compartment door, frustrated that she couldn't find anyone else who shared her view or even understood it. She leant forwards until her forehead touched the wall and stood there for a moment, her arms straight down by her sides in a picture of dejection. She was just making her mind up to go back to the compartment she had been sharing with Harry and Ron and was mulling over another approach – possibly some sort of society? - when a voice from behind interrupted her thoughts.

"Are you ok there Granger?"

She turned slowly, head still resting against the wall and trying not to show how embarrassed she was at being interrupted in her frustrated pose. Cedric Diggory stood watching her, one eyebrow raised in an inquisitive look. She accepted she wouldn't be able to cover this up with any kind of elegance so she just rolled with it.

"Cedric, you're a pure blood aren't you?"

"Um…yes?" Cedric suddenly looked very apprehensive, watching her warily.

"Can you explain house elves to me?" Seeing his confused expression, Hermione elaborated. "I don't understand how everyone is so blasé about something that is essentially brain washed slavery."

Cedric suddenly understood. He hesitated for a moment, before beckoning to an empty carriage just along the corridor. Hermione followed him in, sitting opposite him while the prefect steepled his fingers and thought about how to approach the question.

"I think sometimes there is a lot of information that is just assumed knowledge by wizarding families that muggleborns just don't know," he started, raising a hand when he saw Hermione about to argue the point. "Not the kind of knowledge you can find in books but knowledge handed down through families for generations. When muggleborns come to Hogwarts they are taught about different types of magic but not really magical society, not that the muggle course is much better at teaching about muggle society either." Hermione couldn't disagree with him, most of her knowledge of magical society came from the Weasleys, who were a kind of renegade and did not follow many of the traditions.

Cedric had paused for a moment to think about how to get his point across. "House elves would seem like slaves but they are paid, just not in money. When a house elf bonds to a magical family, the magic of that family strengthens the magic of the elf, and their lifespan is usually elongated. That and they do genuinely love to serve, particularly if there are children in the family."

"But what about those that are abused?" Some of what Cedric had told her helped her to understand the overwhelming reaction from her school peers, but given what she had been told she just couldn't understand why they were treated as less worthy than humans.

Hermione's question caused a dark look to cross Cedric's features. "I'd love to say that no one would abuse their house elves, but I know that is naïve. Some people have also forgotten how much house elves have done for us, and they treat them as though they are just servants which is worse in some ways because it isn't done deliberately, it is ignorant."

Hermione was thinking. "So trying to free house elves deprives them of their magic… but there are no regulations for the treatment of them? And what about the elves at Hogwarts?"

"I don't think there are any regulations, although maybe there should be. I'd have to ask dad. As to the Hogwarts elves, they probably bind to the magic of the castle itself."

"Thank you Cedric, I appreciate you trying to explain to me." Hermione was already thinking hard about how to try to encourage better treatment of house elves, running ideas through her mind so quickly that she didn't notice Cedric muttering "Anytime Granger," before leaving the compartment. If she hadn't been so engrossed in her thoughts she would have noticed the thoughtful expression cross the Hufflepuff's face as he regarded the younger girl through the small window, before moving off to continue on his prefect's rounds.


	4. Hogwarts

**Hogwarts**

 **Again, I don't own this! Thank you for the positive reviews so far, it keeps me motivated.**

Hermione sat for a while by herself in the empty compartment, thinking over all the information she now had about house elves. She had never considered that they may feed off the magic of witches and wizards, and it put everything into a different perspective. She had just about decided to research it but wait until after Hogwarts to do something about it when the compartment door opened and Ginny stuck her head in, followed by a girl with long blond hair that Hermione dimly recalled was in Ginny's year.

"What are you doing in here by yourself, Hermione?"

"Just thinking," Hermione replied, ignoring the redhead's knowing look. Ginny had, after all, been around Hermione for the whole week and knew all about her quest for house elves.

"Decided to free all house elves from ingrained slavery yet?"

"No…" Hermione paused thoughtfully, still thinking hard. "No, it would be cruel to separate house elves from their families… maybe a law to ensure they are treated well? With relocations if they aren't…"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. Her blond companion looked dreamily at Hermione. "I think the narrows are affecting her, Ginny."

At that, Hermione looked up curiously. "Nargles?"

"Oh yes," the blond replied, still with a dreamy expression. "They are invisible creatures that feed off negativity and plant troubling thoughts."

Hermione looked at the girl sceptically. "I've never heard of nargles…"

"Hermione, have you met Luna?" Ginny interrupted loudly, trying to head off a long description of nargles. "Luna's family live not far from the Burrow."

Hermione smiled at Luna, getting an unfocused smile back in return.

"We just passed Diggory in the corridor," Ginny continued, sitting down next to Hermione. "His attractiveness is unfair for the rest of us. I mean, how can we compare?"

"Please," Hermione snorted.

"Oh don't pretend you haven't noticed Hermione! And he's smart, you must appreciate that."

"It's not like I would know Ginny, having had a total of one conversation with him ever." Although that wasn't quite true, Hermione realised. They had spoken today, for example.

"Oh, he's the one in sixth year." Luna's voice was as dreamy as her appearance.

"The one?" Hermione was definitely confused by the blond girl.

"The one that got away," Luna's gaze sharpened as she regarded Hermione. "It's a Ravenclaw thing, choosing the person in the year that should have been sorted into our house. You are the one from your year, Cedric is the one from sixth year."

"Oh right," Hermione replied, feeling oddly pleased. "Well, that's nice…"

"See! Smart." Ginny grinned triumphantly. "Anyway, not that we have managed to get Hermione to admit she may find a boy attractive-"

"I do not!"

"-it's probably time for us to go change into our uniforms! Coming, Luna?"

The younger girl smiled and followed Ginny out of the compartment, leaving Hermione wondering just what had happened in the last five minutes. She distantly heard Luna's voice coming down the corridor "I think maybe I was wrong, it wasn't nargles, it was blitherwings…"

Hermione realised the time herself, hurrying back to her original compartment with Harry and Ron. Waving aside their questions on where she was, she pulled her own robes out of her trunk and went to get changed before the train chugged its way into Hogsmeade.

Hogwarts was now so familiar to Hermione that it felt like coming home, riding up in the driverless carriages to the front gates. She couldn't enjoy it as much as usual though, the rain was lashing down by now and the castle was mostly obscured by the low cloud and darkness. There was no relief inside the gates either, as Peeves (Hogwarts resident poltergeist) had decided the best way to cheer everyone up in the weather was to make them more wet by pelting water balloons at them all. Professor McGonagall came storming in but slipped on the water and grabbed Hermione around the neck, which hurt quite a bit.

All in all, Hermione was very relieved to be sat in the warmth of the Great Hall, nursing a cup of pumpkin juice that was steaming away (so what if she occasionally used a warming charm on the pumpkin juice? She liked it, it reminded her of the hot squash her parents had always packed in the thermos when they went hiking). Harry and Ron sat with her, watching the new first years, one of them was absolutely soaking, almost as though he'd swim through the lake instead of boating across it.

Professor McGonagall brought in the sorting hat and placed it gently on a stool at the front of the hall. Hermione didn't pay much attention to the song this year, although she did hear Harry comment on how it was different to the song it had sung for their sorting. She was about to point out that if he'd read Hogwarts: A History he would know, when Ron beat her to it for once, which was probably a good thing. She didn't mind that the boys didn't read as much as her – well, she didn't mind much, anyway – but it did frustrate her when they always made daft comments on things they would have easily known if they had.

The sorting over, and with many nervous-looking eleven year olds now seated at one of the four house tables, food suddenly appeared. Hermione eyed it with a level of suspicion, now that she was aware it was probably all made by house elves, but still dug in anyway. She did have to admit, it was delicious. Fred and George, sat a few seats away, were discussing how to get into the kitchens with Ron. Hermione paid attention, wanting to visit the kitchen herself. Generally, it was a good welcoming feast, and a lovely start to the year at Hogwarts.

Looking back, Hermione felt that it was all too good to be true.

When the meal was over, and even Ron had put down his cutlery, Professor Dumbledore stood at the front of the hall and raised his hands for silence. It was amazing really, Hermione felt as she looked around the hall at every single eye now fixed to the headmaster, how much respect he garnered with all the students. The whole hall fell silent immediately, leaving only the noise of the howling wind and rain from outside. Even those such as Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins, who were not aligned with the headmaster's policies still respected him.

With a start Hermione realised she had not been listening to the headmaster at all, and tried to catch up with what he was saying, when suddenly the doors of the great hall flew open with a bang.

One of the strangest men Hermione had ever seen was stood in the doorway, black cloak billowing around him and hunched form illuminated by lightning. He moved towards the teachers table, limping with an odd clunk that suggested one of his legs was a prosthetic. When she saw his face she gasped aloud, it was covered in scars and pockmarks and half seemed to be missing. What had really drawn her attention though was the bright blue revolving eyeball in place of one of his eyes.

Professor Dumbledore then introduced this man, Professor Moody, as their new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. There was a transfixed silence in the hall after this pronouncement.

Against this silence Professor Dumbledore resumed his speech, announcing that the Triwizard Tournament would be returning to Hogwarts. The loud exclamation by Fred Weasley dispelled the tension, and the hall was suddenly full of excited murmurs. Hermione felt herself go cold, knowing Harry's luck he would end up in the middle of it – and people had died. A lot of the tension was relieved by Dumbledore's next words, where he assured them (well maybe just her, everyone else seemed really put out) that there was an age restriction of seventeen and over.

She walked to the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Harry and the Weasley twins, who were bemoaning the age line and agreeing to enter anyway. Fred was trying to think of ways around the impartial judge, when he asked Ron if he wanted to enter.

"What d'you reckon?" Ron asked, turning to Harry. "Be cool to enter, wouldn't it?"

"Why would you want to!" interrupted Hermione. "I know there is money and glory, but every year we are here something terrible happens! This tournament is asking for trouble, particularly if Harry is involved!" She glared at Harry as she said this, who raised up his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"Don't look at me; I only want a nice, quiet year without a megalomaniac trying to kill me. There are other ways to impress girls." With that Harry shot a wink at Ron, who smirked while Hermione huffed good naturedly. Neville just looked terrified at the thought of girls, the mere mention causing him to sink into a false stair. Harry and Ron helped him out and they carried on up to the common room, laughing and bantering all the way. Hermione smiled as she followed them, looking forwards to a year that promised a lot of fun and far less worry than the last few.

She didn't know how wrong she was.


	5. The Quadwizard Tournament

**Sorry about the delay, but I've finally completed the next chapter! Please let me know what you think, and thank you to all of those who have followed and commented so far.**

 **As ever, I own nothing.**

 **The Quadwizard Tournament**

The beginning of the school year passed smoothly, with lessons continuing as always. There were only two things that set this year apart from the last. The first was that the teachers were setting a lot of homework, already beginning to prepare for fifth year OWLs. This drew a lot of complaints from Ron although Hermione was secretly pleased – the knowledge that she was starting to prepare so early actually relieved some of the pressure she was beginning to put herself under. She had enough to worry about, with Harry on the edge already due to his vivid dreams and hurting scar. Receiving a long awaited letter from his godfather Sirius Black didn't help much, as Harry just transferred his stress onto the fact that Sirius was coming back and might get caught (he was, after all, a wanted fugitive).

The second difference about this year was Professor Moody.

Even Hermione had to admit, despite a dislike of his methods – Neville's face after the lesson on unforgivable curses sprung to mind – he was a very effective teacher, and one of the best they had ever had. That wasn't really saying a lot, except for Professor Lupin the previous year their Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers had been terrible. But students were now enthused about their lessons, except for Slytherin House but then she wouldn't have been surprised if half their parents hadn't been at the wrong end of the Professor's wand during his stint as an auror. And then there was the ferret incident in the first week outside the great hall. The thought of Draco Malfoy being transfigured into a white ferret and bounced around the entrance hall still brought a smile to Hermione, even though she officially disapproved, of course.

One Saturday in the beginning of October Hermione decided it was time to find the kitchens. Unlike Harry and Ron she had finished almost all of her homework, and this is what led to her standing outside a picture of a bowl of fruit in the bowels of the castle. The only problem was, she couldn't remember what you had to do to get in. She had tried talking to the painting – and she felt particularly silly talking to fruit – but hadn't got anywhere. She had tried knocking, but nothing happened. Standing in the corridor tapping her foot while she thought about it, she missed the soft footfalls walking up behind her.

"What are you doing, Granger?"

Hermione spun round, relaxing slightly when she met the confused gaze of Cedric Diggory. "Um…nothing much. What are you doing down here?"

Cedric looked at her knowingly. "So you weren't trying to get into the kitchens then?"

"What? No…I…you didn't answer my question!"

"Well that's easy," the taller boy shrugged, pointing down the corridor. "The Hufflepuff common room is just down there." He started to walk away, calling over his shoulder "I would try tickling the pear if I were you!"

Hermione watched him go, arms crossed and toe tapping against the floor. When he was out of sight she relaxed her posture, and muttering under her breath about annoying Hufflepuff prefects she reached forwards and tickled the pear, startling slightly when it giggled and swung open to show the kitchen beyond.

The kitchens were a sight to behold. Scores of elves rushed around, no doubt preparing for the dinner that would be served a couple of hours in the hall upstairs. Four large tables and a smaller one were laid out in the same arrangement as the Great Hall, with the smaller staff table perpendicular to the others. Hermione realised after a moments thought that it was likely the tables were directly underneath their Great Hall counterparts – her sense of direction wasn't that brilliant, but she thought the kitchen was in the right area. She just watched for a moment as the bustle continued around her, before she was spotted by a couple of elves that made their way over to her.

"Can we be helping miss?" One of them asked in a high pitch, squeaky voice. His (or at least Hermione thought it was a male elf, it was quite hard to tell…) large ears bobbed slightly as he talked, and he fingered the clean and crisp pillow case that he was wearing. The pillow case carried the Hogwarts emblem on one quarter and was in extremely good condition. In fact, all the house elves were dressed in the same pillow cases, all except one. The odd one out was wearing a garish collection of knitted clothing in every bright colour imaginable. He (again, Hermione was guessing a bit) even had odd but brightly coloured socks on. The colours were almost hypnotising and she had forgotten the elves question until a polite cough brought her attention back.

"Um… I'd like a cup of tea, please." The elves shot off happily, and very quickly a steaming cup of tea was brought back to Hermione. She cautiously seated herself at the end of what would be Gryffindor table and continued to watch the elves whilst cradling her mug between her hands.

The unusually dressed house elf came near to Hermione so she took the opportunity to talk to him. "Nice socks."

"Thank you Miss!" The small elf beamed at Hermione.

"Can I ask why you are dressed differently to the other elves?" Hermione asked tentatively, not wanting to offend the small creature.

"Because Miss, Dobby is a free elf!" Dobby stood a bit taller as he said this proudly. Other elves nearby were shaking their heads and looking a bit ashamed of the garish Dobby.

"A free elf?" Hermione questioned. "Do you worry about what will happen to your magic?"

At this, Dobby's ears drooped slightly.

"Better to be a free elf with no magic than an elf to…an elf to…bad people!" Dobby started banging his head against the table, causing Hermione to try to stop him in alarm. The elf stopped and smiled crookedly at Hermione. "Thank you Miss, Dobby forgets he is not to punish himself anymore."

Hermione smiled at the elf, and then remembered where she had heard the name Dobby before. "Are you the Dobby that helped Harry a couple of years ago?"

"Miss knows the great Harry Potter?" The elf's excitement was palpable.

"Um…yes, he's one of my best friends. I'll let him know you're here, I'm sure he'd like to visit."

Dobby by this point was almost trembling in his eagerness to be reacquainted with his hero, so Hermione decided to go and find Harry straight away.

The meeting between the two was as emotional as could be expected. Hermione was surprised that Dobby now wanted paying – not that she disapproved, but it didn't chime with what she had learnt about normal elvish behaviour. She was shocked to see Winky and the state she was in, but didn't know how she could possibly help the bereft house elf.

Even after they had left the kitchens and the elves behind, the sight of the pathetic creature clutching her butterbeer stayed with Hermione.

Eventually the end of October rolled around, and a notice appeared in the main hallway stating that representatives from Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang would arrive on the thirtieth of October, and that the Triwizard draw would be during the Halloween feast. Hermione felt relieved by this, every Halloween so far throughout her time at Hogwarts had been eventful and it would be nice just to have a normal evening and an opportunity to enjoy the feast.

The thirtieth saw them standing outside the main entrance of Hogwarts, waiting for the delegations from the other schools to arrive. There was a decided chill in the air, and Hermione muttered a warming charm to keep herself and those around her from feeling the worst of the cold. Neville shot her a grateful look although Harry and Ron were oblivious. They were stood out there for quite a while, when there was suddenly a great whooshing noise and a huge carriage pulled by massive winged horses came sailing through the air. It crashed to the ground with a shudder that the students gathered at the doorway of the castle could feel. The carriage was nothing though compared to the lady who emerged from it. She made Hagrid look a normal size, which was a feat in itself. Professor Dumbledore introduced her as Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beaubaxtons cademy. The students filed out after her, in blue floating cloaks that really were not suitable for an autumnal Scottish climate.

No sooner had they had a chance to discuss the arrival of their first set of visitors, when the black lake suddenly churned and swelled. A tall ship, much like a pirate ship that Hermione had seen in movies emerged from the depths. The headmaster of Durmstrang, for it could only be them, was almost the opposite of his Beaubaxtons counterpart. Talk and thin, he sported a thin curling beard that somehow mirrored his expression as he looked around the waiting students. He beckoned one of his students, who were all dressed in fur lined cloaks and hats, up towards him. With his arm around this student he turned and led the rest into the castle Hermione managed to look at the student as they passed, and she didn't need Ron's excited gasp to realise it was none other than the Bulgarian quidditch superstar Victor Krum.

The details of the Goblet of Fire were given out by Professor Dumbledore during the dinner that evening. The age restriction was mentioned and enforced with an ageing line, which the Weasley twins were already plotting to hoodwink. Hermione doubted very much that they would succeed, however the attempt would probably be amusing.

Halloween started with most students eagerly watching to see which of their Hogwarts peers would enter. Most seventh years had chosen to forego the tournament in order to concentrate on their NEWTs, so it was only a handful of the older sixth years who were taking part. Angelina Johnson from Gryffindor put her name in, along with a couple of Slytherins and a Ravenclaw Hermione didn't know. The one she was interested to note though was Cedric Diggory, who grinned sheepishly as he entered and sat at the Hufflepuff table. The visitors all placed their names in, in one group. Hermione supposed that only those students serious about competing had been given the opportunity to study at Hogwarts for the year. She did wonder a bit what their schools were planning to do without Headmasters for the whole year but assumed a deputy had been chosen.

Predictably, Fred and George did get blasted back by the age line but sprouted tremendous beards as they did so, causing much merriment amongst the onlookers.

Eventually the Halloween feast rolled around, and the hall was silent as the Goblet was brought out. One by one it sparked red and fired pieces of paper towards the headmaster, who caught them deftly and read out the names of the champions. For Beaubaxtons, a blond girl called Fleur Delacour was selected. Victor Krum was chosen for Durmstrang, causing raucous calls beyond his fellow students. And for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory was chosen. The roar from Hufflepuff table was deafening, although Hermione added her own to the din. Only Slytherin table sat unmoved, the two sixth years who had entered looking mutinous.

The headmaster had just started to conclude his speech and encourage the students to start dinner when the Goblet of Fire started to emit red sparks again. Hermione's stomach dropped, from the headmaster's expression she could tell that he hadn't expected any more activity and this didn't bode well. A split second later she was proved right, when Professor Dumbledore read a piece of paper that the Goblet ejected, paused for a second and then called out.

"Harry Potter."


	6. Here Be Dragons

**Here be Dragons**

 **Hello all! Sorry for the wait, but to make up for it this is a slightly longer chapter. As ever, reviews fuel the muse!**

Hermione sat in the common room, pretending to read a book while excited chatter went on around her. She wasn't really reading the novel she held between her hands, but she had read it often enough that she didn't really need to. It's weight and familiarity was a comfort, something she could rely on. She hadn't seen Ron, which she didn't think was a good thing. Despite it being evident to everybody with eyes that Harry was the most shocked person in the room when his name came out of the Goblet, Ron had sat with a surly look on his face, not even dinner distracting him and then he left early to head back to the common room. Hermione had hurried after him, to see him disappearing up the stairs to the boys's dormitory when she climbed through the entrance into Gryffindor tower.

Neville was sat opposite her in a large chair, twisting his hands together and looking as worried as she felt. He was one of the only people in the room who wasn't in a celebratory mood following Harry's selection. Hermione had contemplated going to the library to research the rules regarding Triwizard participation but she had decided instead to be there for Harry when he got back.

She was glad she had waited, as the figure that came into the common room later that night looked worried and small. He was almost immediately mobbed by most of Gryffindor, clamouring for him to tell them how he did it and wanting to congratulate him. Hermione managed to snag his arm and gently propel him towards the stairs to the boys dormitories, Neville already waiting to escort him up. She squeezed his arm lightly, earning a tense smile before he disappeared up to his dorm. She slipped away to hers, charming her curtains closed before pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill to note down everything she needed to do now. At the top of the list – find Harry a way out of this accursed tournament.

The next morning Hermione was up first thing, visiting the library to collect books on magical contracts and the Triwizard tournament. She had just taken her haul down to breakfast when Ron turned up, without Harry in tow. Before she could question why not Ron began loudly commenting on Harry's duplicity to her, whilst simultaneously managing to insert scrambled eggs, instantly explaining why he had come down to breakfast alone. In a very short space of time – during which Hermione tried to ignore him by perusing one of the books she brought with her – she had had enough. Slamming the book shut she stood up and turned to the redhead.

"You should know better than anyone that if Harry said he didn't enter the tournament, then he didn't enter. It's bad enough that he now has to compete, when he could easily be maimed or die, without you and all the other people he considers friends giving him a hard time about it!"

Ron just gasped at her for a second, and she thought maybe she had managed to get through to him, but then:

"Well of course you'd side with the Boy-Who-Lived!"

Hermione didn't stick around to hear what other insights Ron had, she grabbed her bag, scooped up some toast on a napkin and stomped out of the Great Hall. She was busy muttering to herself in her head, aware that by leaving she had probably spared herself a character assassination by Ron who had turned a rather alarming puce colour.

She had just turned towards the main staircase when she heard her name called from below. She looked down to see Cedric Diggory hurrying towards her, his own half eaten slice of toast in one hand. It looked as though he had quickly followed her out of the Great Hall. She looked at him quizzically as he approached.

"I just wanted…do you mind telling Harry that I don't think he entered the tournament?"

"You don't?" Hermione's tone was sceptical, not expecting much after her encounter with Ron. Cedric seemed to realise this as he turned earnest eyes on her.

"No, not anymore." Cedric brushed the toast-free hand through his hair whilst grimacing slightly. "I did to begin with last night. But then, I started thinking about it after I went back to the dorms. There was also no sense for him to be a fourth champion, in all honesty if he'd managed to put his name in under Hogwarts he would probably have got it. I mean, he's Harry Potter. It's all a bit strange." Cedric shook his head and smiled again at Hermione, gesticulating the the food she carried in a napkin. "I know you don't want to listening to me waffle when you want to get back to Harry but I'm glad you are helping him. I just wanted to reassure him that last night I was being a prat, and I don't really think he did it at all."

"Well…thanks. I'll pass it on." The Hufflepuff left, leaving Hermione bemused and still holding cold toast. She mentally shook herself and trotted back to the Gryffindor common room, just in time to see Harry exiting the portrait hole. She immediately held up the toast, rewarded with a wan smile. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

The morning was crisp and clear, Hermione would have enjoyed the walk except for the situation. Harry was morose, he had realised the night before that Ron believed he put his own name into the Goblet. Hermione's insistence that she, Neville and Cedric thought he was being set up did raise his morale slightly, but not enough to counteract the desertion of his supposedly best friend. She explained to Harry that it was almost certainly due to jealousy that Ron was behaving the way he was, but although Harry accepted it she could tell that it didn't really raise his spirits. They stood and watched the Giant Squid lazily grab some of Harry's leftover toast together, both wondering about what was going to come now.

Over the next few days it was adamantly clear that three quarters of the school did not support Harry at all. Surprisingly, despite it being their Champion that was overshadowed by Harry's entry, the Hufflepuffs were the least openly antagonistic, particularly the older years. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion this was actually more to do with Cedric making a particular effort to be nice to Harry when they passed each other in the corridors than because thry actually weren't upset, but was grateful to it all the same. Ravenclaw just disapproved heartily of wrong-doing, and whilst they weren't openly aggressive they were extremely cold towards Harry and by extension herself. Slytherin were even more unpleasant than usual, using any excuse to taunt Harry.

This all came to a head in the corridor before double potions one Friday afternoon. Malfoy was flashing off some badges the Slytherin's had made, infantile creations that really weren't worth the materials they were made on, but Hermione could see that it was just the icing on the cake for Harry so she commented on the lack of intelligence that had gone into making them. Malfoy naturally retorted with racial slurs, so far so usual. The escalation then happened quickly, both Harry and Ron diving for their wands whilst Malfoy also rattled off a curse. She didn't see exactly what happened, but the spells must have ricocheted off each other, one came flying towards Hermione and hit her squarely in the face.

Her front teeth began to ache incredibly painfully and grew longer and longer, coming down below her mouth and growing past her chin. She tried in vain to cover them, but they were growing so long she wasn't able to.

Professor Snape had arrived and was sorting out the mess, meaning taking absurd levels of points from Gryffindors whilst ignoring the Slytherin perpetrators. Harry pulled Hermione forward to demonstrate the effect of the curse that she was hit with, claiming it had been fired by Malfoy. Professor Snape sneered in her direction "I see no difference."

Hermione was used to scorn from the Slytherins and Professor Snape, so this should not have affected her as much as it did. However, she had always been self conscious about her front teeth and to hear them mocked by a Professor in front of a corridor full of hostile students was more than she could bear. She choked back a sob and ran towards the hospital wing.

She wasn't too far away when she collided with a tall boy wearing Hufflepuff robes. Her excuse was that the tears blurring her eyes made it hard for her to see, but the impact jarred her ever growing teeth painfully and caused fresh tears to fall. Looking up she saw a boy she recognised but did not know. The boy took one look at her and waved his wand whilst muttering something Hermione didn't catch. Her teeth remained large but they stopped growing any more.

"I'm really sorry," the boy started. "I was late for my class and didn't see you. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital wing."

Hermione tried to tell him not to worry, that she would only make him later and that she could go by herself but the overly large teeth made talking very difficult. The boy seemed to guess what she was saying though, and shook his head at her. "I'm already late, and you obviously need help. Come on."

He took her gently by the shoulder and steered her along the corridor. "I would try to fix them myself," he continued, talking at her as they walked along, "but really Madam Pomfrey will do a much better job than me! I'm Jonathon Parker, by the way."

"Her-i-o-ee Gain-er" Hermione managed to splutter out, then wished she hadn't. The older Hufflepuff looked at her amused. "You can tell me later." He replied. "Besides, we're here now."

Sure enough, the door to the hospital wing was stood open in front of her. Stepping back and sweeping an elaborate bow to her, Jonathon let her go first. Just after she entered the hospital wing Goyle staggered out of it, pushing past her and Jonathon who was still just outside. The gorilla-like Slytherin ignored the other boy's exclamation as he was shoved into the door frame, lumbering off down the corridor although not, as Hermione noticed, back towards the potions classroom.

"Sometimes I wish I were a prefect," Jonathon muttered, "so I could take points for rudeness."

"Oo aren'?" Hermione queried.

"Not me," he replied, "I don't have the school record for it, I'm just not that smart. Besides, Cedric makes a better prefect than me anyway, he really cares about the younger kids. Not that I don't!" He hastened to add. "Just that if I want to pass my exams I have to work that much harder and I simply don't have time to do prefect duties on top."

Hermione nodded her understanding and then turned to see Madame Pomfrey bustling over to them.

"Oh dear, what happened here?" She muttered, reaching the pair.

"I found her in the corridor, Madame Pomfrey. Her teeth were still growing so I stopped them with a finite incantatum, but I didn't want to even attempt to fix them."

"Quite right too," the matron approved. "All sorts of things could go wrong. Now dear, if you just sit on that bed over there. And…Mr Parker, isn't it?" At the confirmatory nod, she continued. "Well done for escorting Miss Granger here, I'll write you a note so you don't get in trouble for missing class."

"Thanks Madame Pomfrey. See you around, Granger!" With a cheery wave the Hufflepuff was gone, leaving Hermione sat by herself in the hospital wing.

Madame Pomfrey bustled over, drawing her wand out whilst muttering "What this school is coming to, I don't know. Fighting in the corridors, hexing each other blatantly. Now dear," her tone was much softer as she addressed Hermione directly, "can you let me know when your front teeth get back to the length they were originally?"

Hermione's teeth started to shrink slowly under the matron's spell. Hermione watched the mirror closely as her teeth passed their normal buck tooth position, telling Madame Pomfrey to stop as they reached a length she was happy with. Yes, her dentist parents wouldn't approve of using magical means to fix her teeth, but they never needed to know as she would just tell them that she had finally grown into them.

By the time Madame Pomfrey had finished with Hermione – which including fussing around her, making sure she was ok and giving her chocolate to help her feel better – the potions class was over and she had missed most of dinner too. On realising this, the matron also insisted that she eat in the hospital wing "to make sure your teeth are working fine", and it was some considerable time later that Hermione was finally released. On returning to the common room a still sulking Ron told her that Harry was busy answering his fan mail, which didn't actually make any sense, so she gave up on both of them and went to bed early.

The next morning Harry was relieved to see her, and also slightly cheered by the fact that he had heard from his Godfather Sirius – even though this also led to him blaming himself for Sirius being in danger by being too close to him in Britain, as Sirius was a wanted fugitive for a crime he didn't commit. This was one silver lining of what became a very trying fortnight as the first task approached. Harry was being shunned by basically the whole school, which meant that Hermione was being shunned too by default. It didn't help that both Harry and Ron were trying to use her as a go between. Both boys were being too stubborn to admit that they missed each other or to try to talk with each other. This meant that Harry was in the library a lot more when Hermione was trying to study, which was incredibly distracting and not helped by the fact that Victor Krum was also unsuccessfully using it as a hideaway. Between the dark stares and whispers directed towards her and Harry and the fan club that surrounded Krum, Hermione was finding it tricky to get much work done.

The 'Potter Stinks' badges were everywhere, despite Hermione witnessing several senior Hufflepuffs trying to suppress them where possible. She suspected Cedric and maybe even Jonathon had a hand in this, for which she was grateful. The Hufflepuffs in their year had thawed a bit towards Harry as well, still not completely happy about the glory being stolen from their house (as they saw it) but that wasn't too unreasonable given that Hufflepuffs weren't often given a chance to shine.

The first Triwizard tournament task was scheduled for a Tuesday, and the weekend before was the first Hogwarts weekend. Hermione persuaded Harry to come along, although he stuck to wearing his invisibility cloak for the entire duration. It made her feel ridiculous, walking along talking to herself and she knew she would get some grief for it later from some of the gangs of giggling girls who watched her passing and whispered excitedly amongst themselves. She wished they would go find Diggory or Krum and leave her alone. It was worth it though to have Harry finally relax, even if only for a day.

It was only for a day however, as the next morning while Hermione was eating breakfast and chatting to Ginny, a flustered Harry charged in and barely let her grab her porridge before pulling her out the Great Hall and into the grounds. Her heart sank as her turned to her with panicked eyes and said "Hermione, the first task is _dragons_!"


	7. The First Task

**The First Task**

 **I apologise for the length of this chapter – I usually try to keep chapters shorter and publish more routinely. But I decided very early on that this chapter would include the first task and so it just kept getting bigger and bigger… anyway, enjoy and remember that reviews fuel the muse.**

 **As ever, this belongs to JK, not me.**

Hermione was muttering loudly to herself as she pulled vast armfuls of books off the library shelves, adding them to an already teetering stack that was floating behind her. Not for the first time that day she cursed herself for not preparing Harry more for the first Triwizard task. Truthfully, she had been ignoring it slightly and hoping it would go away. Now that she knew about it, and knew it was dragons, she was frantically researching ways of incapacitating them, at least for long enough for Harry to do whatever it is he was meant to be doing. She didn't think that Harry would have to defeat the dragon as the breeds involved were rare and she didn't think a dragon reserve would have agreed to lend such valuable creatures for their destruction. She thought instead that Harry would have to perform some form of task that had a dragon interfering with it. Not that it was a much easier prospect.

Harry was sat at her usual table, books piled high in front of him but from where she was stood it looked as though he had given up, his head resting on the table and his eyes staring down at the stained wood.

"Harry!" She whispered frantically, rejoining him with her new stack of books. "What are you doing?"

"It's hopeless," he mumbled, not lifting his head up. "I really don't need to know how to treat scale rot or dragon conjunctivitis, all these books are hopeless."

Hermione looked affronted at the fact someone had insulted her books. "There will be something somewhere! Oh no…"

Harry raised his head to see that the brunette was not looking in his direction anymore but was instead distractedly staring at the back of the library. Following her line of sight, he saw Victor Krum sitting at a small table behind his own book pile.

"What's wrong with Krum? He seems ok, and he's not exactly bothering us…"

"It's not Krum," Hermione hissed. "It's _them_."

She indicated towards a group of girls who had just entered the library and were taking up a spot near the table Hermione and Harry were sitting at. Instead of working, the girls were giggling into their hands and shooting glances at Krum. "Fan girls!" Hermione said flatly, not even bothering to lower her voice and causing a few scowls in their direction. "Come on Harry, we'll get more work done in the common room." She gathered up the most promising books and gave the girls a black glare as she brushed past them on her way out. Despite the fact that most were in older years they still flinched from her the force of her gaze.

"They turn up constantly," Hermione told Harry while they were walking back to the Gryffindor common room. "Every time Krum comes to the library, which is quite a lot of the time, and often when he doesn't just in case. As Krum always sits at the same table they normally choose the table next to mine so they can get a good view." Hermione's voice contained badly suppressed irritation. "They once even had the nerve to ask me to move from my table just because, and I quote, the view was sublime and it was wasted on me."

Harry desperately wanted to snigger at Hermione's indignation, but wisely decided now was not the time to interrupt her rant.

"I mean, of all the cheek! That is my table, I use it all the time and I've been going to that library since before they knew it existed! And they are always chatting and giggling. Madame Pince usually keeps the worst of the noise down but it's just so distracting! I wish Krum would go anywhere else and take his fan club with him. He must have a library of some sort on the Durmstrang ship."

By this time they had reached the cosy familiarity of the common room and Harry claimed a couple of comfortable seats with a low table in front. They spent the rest of the day poring over the dragon books, unfortunately making very little progress.

At breakfast the next morning Hermione was still sat reading a tome on dragons ( _Dragon History of Eastern Asia_ , to be precise) propped up against a fruit bowl that she knew most of the boys surrounding her wouldn't touch. Harry sat next to her, poking around the bacon and eggs that she had earlier piled on his plate for him. She didn't see him look up and across the room, but when he suddenly stood she glanced quizzically at him.

"Don't wait for me," he muttered before charging out of the Great Hall. "I'll see you in the greenhouses."

Hermione assumed Harry had run to get a textbook he had forgotten before Herbology, so she assumed he would meet her outside the greenhouse as she packed her book away after breakfast. She was therefore surprised when not only was he not there when she arrived but that he didn't turn up until ten minutes after the lesson began, waving Professor Sprout a note from Professor Moody and a muttered apology as he made his way over to where she was working. The expression on his face was a mixture of elated and apprehensive.

"Hermione, I need you to help me. I need to learn how to do a summoning charm by tomorrow afternoon."

Lunch that day consisted of sandwiches grabbed quickly before they found a spare room to practice in. Harry just couldn't manage the charm for some reason – their practise objects would start travelling towards him but then give up halfway, falling to the floor. They spent their whole lunch hour trying to improve it, to little avail. Hermione just wasn't sure where he was going wrong, he managed the wand movements and incantation correctly but it just didn't complete for some reason.

As the bell rang for their next lesson Harry slumped into a corner and tucked his head between his arms, resting his forehead on his knees with a look of absolute dejection. "It's impossible, if I can't even summon a quill across one classroom how can I summon my broom into the middle of the forest?"

Hermione sat next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. "You'll get there. We can skip our classes and practice all afternoon." On seeing Harry's disbelieving look she nudged him slightly. "I know it's hard to believe but I have come on a bit since first year – I now believe your life is worth more than one Arithmancy class. And I know you aren't going to be upset at missing divination."

This time the boy snorted. "Missing Trelawny's predictions of me meeting a fiery end in my near future, you mean."

At this Hermione knocked her head backwards against the wall. "I can't believe she still does that! She is a complete fraud and should be sacked for tormenting students."

Harry smiled at this, twirling his wand between his fingers while he gathered the energy to start practising summoning again. His thoughts were interrupted by Hermione.

"Do you have your invisibility cloak on you?"

"Yes, I tend to keep it with me. Why?"

"I think the problem is that you are losing concentration – as Professor Flitwick said, you have to really want the object for the summoning charm to work properly. I don't see that being too much of an issue tomorrow, as although your concentration may be affected by the dragon-"

"You think?!"

"Hush! As I was saying, your concentration may be affected but I very much doubt you'll have wanted anything much more in your life than your Firebolt at that moment in time."

Harry nodded as he conceded that was very likely true.

"The problem with practising is that none of the objects we are using are magical, certainly not the way your Firebolt is. Your Firebolt is already attuned to your magic so it will try to help you out, spell or not. I thought the easiest thing to practice with in here would be your cloak, that would allow you to get the feel of it and then you can move back to non magical objects."

"That…isn't a bad idea at all," Harry said slowly, thinking Hermione's logic through. He stood and retrieved his invisibility cloak from where it was stored in his bag, folded carefully inside a compartment he had added specifically for it. Placing it carefully at one end of the room on a long table, Harry retreated to the other side and raised his wand.

"Accio cloak," thinking very hard about his invisibility cloak.

In his defence, he hadn't yet managed to cast the spell properly, and he was busy concentrating hard. Whatever the reason, when the cloak flew towards him at lightning speed even his seeker reflexes weren't enough to stop it hitting him square in the face.

"You did it!" Hermione bounced up and down several times in excitement, before pulling the cloak off his face and putting it back on the other side of the room. "Try again!"

This time Harry was prepared for the cloak to come sailing towards him and caught it easily, a large grin splitting his face. Maybe unsurprisingly, it seemed Hermione was correct about his own magical items working better with his magic which gave him some confidence when it came to summoning his broom.

They worked together on the summoning charm most of the afternoon, moving on from the invisibility cloak to other, less magical objects and finally mundane objects. After Harry had caught the heavy textbook he had successfully summoned five times in a row, Hermione declared that if he didn't have it now he never would.

The pair went down to dinner having spent all afternoon practising. Hermione received a short nod from her Arithmancy teacher, Professor Vector, suggesting that the professor would not penalise her for skipping classes. Hermione knew she was strict though and expected to have additional work set so that she could catch up.

After dinner Harry went back to the classroom to study, but asked Hermione not to help him as he needed to be sure he could summon his broom by himself. The brunette acquiesced and went to the library to get some peace and quiet. She was poring over yet another book looking for any last minute tips for Harry ( _Dragon Habits and Weaknesses – A Tamer's Guide_ ) when her study was disturbed by a figure muttering to themselves as they perused the shelves behind her. This was not that bad by itself, after all some people (and she was occasionally guilty of this herself) did prefer to think out loud. No, the thing that really annoyed her was the accompanying whispering and giggling coming from the end of the row. Sighing, she was about to glare (again) at Krum whose followers had made the library unbearable recently, when she realised that the figure was considerably more slight than the Bulgarian seeker. Not skinny, she thought, as her eyes roamed over the muscular shoulders, just not quite so bulky and hunched over. As she was comparing physiques in her head the figure turned, and she was caught staring by none other than Cedric Diggory. She turned her gaze into a glare, trying to ignore the blush rising after being caught perusing him like he was some kind of meat. In the force of her glare he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck and disappeared over to the next aisle, presumably to rejoin his fan girls. Hermione huffed and returned to the book, relieved to have lost the distraction.

But she only managed to read a single paragraph when she was disturbed again by someone sitting down in the seat opposite her. She looked up into Cedric's blue-grey eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you were finished with that book? It's just….the first task is tomorrow…"

Hermione looked down at the book she had been reading and realised that Harry must have told Cedric about the task. She was torn between wanting to finish the book herself and helping out the Hufflepuff who was gazing at her with the same easy smile that sent most of the female population of Hogwarts into palpitations. As though sensing her reluctance, Cedric leaned forwards in his seat and…fluttered his eyelashes?!

"Does that ever actually work?" She only realised she had spoken out loud by the slight blush darkening Cedric's cheeks.

"Well…yes, usually."

Hermione sighed deeply. "I am ashamed to be female sometimes. That is just…just…words fail me."

Cedric was pouting slightly by now, giving her puppy eyes. This caused her to roll her own back at him. "You think it so incredible that a woman might find me attractive?"

"I think only if the girl in question is the type to value pretty looks over anything more substantial."

Cedric placed his hand over his heart dramatically. "Ouch, you wound me Granger. I'll have you know that I'm not just pretty looks, half the school would be able to tell you that."

"Which half would that be? The female one?"

"Again with the scorn! This may start to affect me, you know."

"I'm sure you'll get over it, or find some fan girl to help you to." Hermione closed the dragon book and reluctantly handed it over, realising that with Harry's plan she really had no need of another book on how to subdue a dragon. Cedric hesitated for a moment, before he seemed to remember why he had come over in the first place and took the book from her.

"Thanks Granger, it's been fun talking to you!" He stood and went to move away.

"Isn't it a bit late for trying to learn anything from that?" Hermione gestured to the book he had taken from her, the first task was tomorrow afternoon after all.

Cedric's expression turned wry. "It's for a backup plan really, I am planning to use Transfiguration to create a distraction as it's my strongest subject, but it's always nice to have options. I was hoping for some inspiration."

Hermione nodded. "I see…well, good luck I guess." Cedric's answering smile was a genuine one and for one tiny, almost insignificant moment Hermione could see why almost all the female population of Hogwarts turned to mush when the tall Hufflepuff prefect was around. The feeling passed very soon though and she waved him away.

After Cedric departed Hermione was left with her thoughts. Which very quickly turned to how late it was and that she needed to be up early for last minute summoning practice with Harry. She gathered up all her things in a rush to get back before curfew and cursed the Hufflepuff under her breath for wasting a perfectly good reading evening.

The next day dawned clear and bright, a beautiful crisp autumnal day that was completely wasted on Hermione. The only person that seemed anywhere near as nervous as she was (and was in fact far more nervous than her) was Harry, who was struggling to eat normally and was a disturbing shade of grey. They attended their morning classes as usual, mostly to fill the time before the contest in the afternoon. Over lunch Harry was very quiet, and simply nodded resolutely when Professor McGonagall approached to say that the champions were required to gather at the edge of the forest. Hermione whispered a hurried 'Good Luck' as Harry was disappearing out of the Great Hall. Looking across, she caught sight of pale blue eyes and nodded to Cedric as he too left following a brief discussion with Professor McGonagall. He gave her a tight smile which looked more like a grimace in return, a determined expression on his face.

Instead of heading straight to the forest and the new stadium that Hermione could see towering above the trees, she initially took a diversion to the quidditch pitch to ensure that Harry's Firebolt broom was clear of restraint and placed in the centre of the arena. Despite all the additional attendees at Hogwarts, she didn't expect anyone to come down to the quidditch pitch and so she and Harry had agreed it was a sensible place to put the Firebolt ready for Harry to summon it. They hadn't been sure how strong the charm would be and whether or not it would allow the broom to break out of the castle, and even if it did there was a chance the Firebolt could be damaged in the process.

The task complete, Hermione hurried to join her school mates at the stadium. Most of the school were fighting their way inside, and she was knocked sideways into someone who steadied her carefully. She looked up to thank them, and realised she had bumped into the Hufflepuff who had helped her when she had been cursed by Malfoy.

"Hermione, isn't it?" The tall boy asked with an easy smile. Today she managed to get a good look at her former rescuer, who had short brown hair and brown eyes to match with an open face and dimples.

"Yes, Jonathon right? It's nice to finally be able to introduce myself properly. Thank you so much for helping me."

The Hufflepuff just waved her gratitude off as they were meandering into the stadium. "Nothing that you wouldn't have done." He almost looked embarrassed at her thanks.

"I still appreciate it," Hermione smiled brightly up at him, causing him to stumble slightly which the Gryffindor missed completely as she was scanning the stadium to find her friends. By now they had made it into the stands, but with a resigned sigh she could see her fellow lions were almost all sitting on the other side and she would have to make her way around to join them. The arena itself was covered in darkness, obviously deliberately to not give the crowd a glimpse of what was to come. The judges were raised on a platform to Hermione's left, with a good view down into the dark and opposite a

Bidding goodbye to the Hufflepuff, who had waved and started to make his way over to a group of boys she recognised as being the group that Cedric normally hung around with as well, Hermione started edging her way around to the Gryffindors. Finally reaching it, she was really pleased to find that Parvati and Lavender had saved her a seat with them. She hadn't always had a great relationship with her roommates but recently they had mellowed slightly and she had been more accommodating, meaning that they were on fairly good terms. Ron, on the other hand, didn't really look over at her but instead stared into the darkness trying to work out what was happening within.

They didn't have long to wait. Barely five minutes after Hermione was seated Ludo Bagman, the sports minister, stood from the judge's bench and magically enhanced his voice so that he could be heard by all the gathered students.

"Welcome to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament! Our four champions are waiting and raring to go, having found out their task. And for you, ladies and gentlemen, I have just a few words on how the task will go. The champions will be called out one by one, first will be Hogwarts own Cedric Diggory-" A rowdy cheer greeted this announcement as nearly all of Hogwarts cheered the Hufflepuff including the Gryffindors, although that could be because they like cheering. "Next will come Miss Fleur Delacour from Beaubaxtons," a similar, though slightly more refined cheer came from the smaller Beaubaxton contingent. "Third will be Mr Victor Krum from Durmstrang." This time the cheers were very definitely more female sounding, as the group from Durmstrang were drowned out by the fanclub from Hogwarts and Beaubaxtons. "And finally, our youngest champion, Harry Potter himself!" There was a loud cheer for Harry, but it was almost exclusively the Gryffindor students. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in volume.

"Now our intrepid champions have but one task – they must retrieve the golden egg! Points will be awarded by the judges for how well they manage to do this and the speed in which they complete the task. And now, ladies and gentlemen, your first champion is ready. Enter the ring, Mr Cedric Diggory!"

The darkness lifted from the arena and the collected audience gasped as the view was revealed. Boulders lay scattered about on the forest clearing, with a small hillock in the middle of it. Next to the hillock sat a huge blue-grey dragon, a clutch of eggs beneath her as she hovered protectively over them. Even from the stands Hermione could see the glint of gold that suggested the golden egg was within her clutch.

The audience was deathly silent as they watched the Hufflepuff champion walk into the arena. Cedric Diggory was tall, self-assured and confident but against the looming dragon he looked small and insignificant.

His tactic appeared to be diversionary, and true to his statement in the library the previous day he transfigured a rock into a large Labrador, a very impressive piece of work that earned approval from the crowd. The dog immediately began harrying the dragon, causing it to snap irritably as it kept a close watch on the canine. After a while passed the dragon lost patience and began to rise from her eggs, moving towards the barking dog. Cedric, who until this point had been sneaking around the arena to try to get as close as possible, saw his chance and sprinted towards the clutch. He had just managed to grab the golden egg when the dragon realised what was happening. With a scream-like roar she turned and flamed Cedric, engulfing him in fire and causing most of the crowd to cry out. Hermione buried her face in her hands, convinced she was witnessing the death of a school friend. When the flames died down Cedric could be seen still running for the exit, leading to relieved gasps in the audience but Hermione could see the ugly burn down his right-hand side.

Ludo Bagman stood slightly shakily. "Our first champion managed to collect his golden egg! That was very good indeed from the first Hogwarts champion. Now for the judges' marks."

Each judge stood and scored Cedric on a mark out of ten, resulting in a score of thirty eight out of fifty for his attempt at the first task. Hermione could barely watch – it had been brutal, and yet she knew that was one of the least challenging dragons. She hoped beyond hope that Harry hadn't been given the Chinese Fireball or the Hungarian Horntail, both of which were known to be incredibly aggressive.

Her hopes were dashed when the next dragon was brought in by dragon handlers and she saw the brilliant green hide of the Welsh Green. Fleur Delacour entered the arena, looking determined. The French champion did something that Hermione couldn't see, but the dragon was obviously being subdued. After some time had gone by, the dragon curled up to sleep. The blond girl crept forwards carefully so as to not wake the reptile. She snagged the golden egg and was creeping away when the dragon let out a great snore, accompanied by a tongue of flame. Fleur's blue robes caught alight, but with a flick of the wrist she dowsed the flames with a jet of water and then sprinted from the arena to widespread cheers.

The judges scored Fleur thirty nine points, one more than Cedric. Hermione assumed that it was because she took much longer than the Hogwarts student, despite not being getting injured.

The next dragon they wheeled in was a large red dragon, the Chinese Fireball. Hermione dropped her face in her hands as she realised that this meant that Harry would be facing the Horntail.

Krum was no nonsense in the arena, immediately firing a conjunctivitis hex at the dragon that hit true. This allowed the Bulgarian to creep in to retrieve the golden egg, although to Hermione's dismay the irate dragon was stomping around crushing her own eggs in her pain. This also meant that it took Krum more time than he would have liked to retrieve the golden egg, as he had to keep away from the dragon on its rampage.

Krum was scored forty points, the best so far, although Igor Karkaroff who was the headmaster of Durmstrang awarded him the full ten points out of ten, which given the majority of the dragon eggs had been crushed and Karkaroff had scored the other competitors quite low marks seemed to show blatant favouritism towards his own champion.

Next it was Harry"s turn. Hermione could barely watch as the giant Hungarian Horntail was brought into the stadium. Ron's whisper of "Bloody hell," could be heard throughout the silent assembled Gryffindors. Turning to scrutinise her red haired friend Hermione could see he had gone deathly pale as he stared at the monstrous beast that Harry would have to get past.

Harry entered to a cheer, seeing the type of tasks appeared to have warmed the school up to their youngest champion and all except Slytherin house were willing him on. He stood in the arena, as far from the Horntail as he could, and raised his wand. For a moment nothing happened, and Hermione could feel her nails digging into her face as she muttered "Come on, come on…"

Then, heralded by a gasp from the crowd, the Firebolt came sailing into the arena and hovered obediently by Harry's side. Releasing the breath she didn't know she was holding, Hermione watched as Harry mounted the broom and soared into the air. The commentary from Ludo Bagman and the expressions on the faces of the Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang students showed how talented Harry really was on a broom but this was lost on Hermione as she watched Harry twisting higher, getting caught by the Horntail's tail spikes, slowly luring her off her eggs. Soon the dragon reared up and Harry pounced, swooping down to collect the egg and then soaring towards the arena exit. The crowd went wild, it had been the best display they had seen and Harry had caught the egg in record time.

Hermione immediately stood, knowing that Harry would be taken to the medical tent due to the cut on his arm. She reached the end of the row and realised that Ron was following her, face still drawn. She scrutinised his pale expression and nodded slightly, to which he replied with a lop sided smile that before this mess of a year may well have made her stomach somersault slightly. With surprise she realised that the feeling had gone, maybe it was the stress of Harry being entered into the tournament or maybe it was the evidence of Ron's jealousy, she didn't know.

The pair entered the medical tent after Professor McGonagall waved them through to see Harry with Madam Pomfrey fussing over him. The clear skin underneath his torn robe suggested that she had already patched him up. As Hermione approached, Ron following closely behind her, Harry gave her a huge grin. Madam Pomfrey disappeared behind a curtain, asking Cedric how it felt. Hermione looked at the silhouette of the Hufflepuff with some concern before turning her attention back to Harry.

"You were amazing Harry!"

Ron behind her cleared his throat and, looking at his feet, muttered to Harry "I think whoever entered you into this tournament…they were trying to do you in."

Looking nervously from one boy to the other, Hermione could tell that Harry was thinking about his options, and waited nervously for him to respond. When he finally looked at Ron and said "It's ok, forget it," she couldn't help it – she burst into tears. All the stress and worry of the last month or so worked its way out in torrent and she felt like a damn had been released. Still crying, she turned and ran out of the medical tent.


	8. After the dragons comes the dancing

**After the dragon comes dancing**

 **As ever, I do not own HP. Sorry for the delay but I am always still working on this story, I just have a lot else going on at the moment. I always eventually return to all my stories though, so I will finish it! Reviews are always welcome and definitely help the motivation.**

Tears welling in her eyes and inhibiting her view, Hermione was running back towards the castle when she heard her named called.

"Hey, what's the rush – wait, are you ok?"

Jonathon Parker was on his way to the medical tent to check on Cedric when he saw a head of curly hair dashing past. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of the Gryffindor fourth year who always seemed to be in a hurry every time he saw her. This smile soon dropped though when he saw the tears. Instead of answering him, Hermione just flapped her hand at him and ran off. Jonathon hesitated for a moment, torn between following her and seeing to his friend. Cedric won in the end, hoping that she would find a friend to help the boy continued into the medical tent. Harry Potter and one of the Weasleys were just about to leave as he entered, Potter prodding his arm gingerly and the Weasley seemingly giving him a rundown of the first task. Neither noticed Jonathon as they ducked under the tent flap.

"Ced?" Jonathon called, looking around the entrance of the tent. It was partitioned internally with more fabric, creating private spaces.

"Here, Jonny," his friend called from the second partition; Jonathon followed the sound to find Cedric sat on the edge of a bed with a thick paste slathered on one side of his face. At seeing his friend's expression, Cedric scowled. "Madam Pomfrey says I have to wear this for twelve hours to prevent scarring."

Jonathon gasped mockingly. "No! Not the pretty face!"

He then had to duck quickly out of the way as Cedric threw a damp washcloth at him. He reached out to catch it and missed completely, causing Cedric to laugh. "And that is why you've never made the quidditch team!"

Jonathon scowled "No need to rub it in, just because I have the coordination of a dying fish. How are you feeling?"

"Like I've fought against a dragon." Cedric replied in a deadpan voice, then grinned at his friend. "Seriously though, I'm ok. The burn doesn't even hurt, just looks awful because of this paste. How did everyone else get on?"

"Mostly as you'd expect: Fleur tried to deceive it and Krum went for the brute force approach. Neither got injured, but Krum's score was lower as some of the dragon eggs were crushed."

"And Potter?"

Jonathon blew into his cheeks while he was thinking. "He was the one that surprised. He didn't try to engage the dragon, instead he tried to outmanoeuvre it."

"Outmanoeuvre? How?" Cedric leant forward, listening intently.

"He summoned a broom into the arena and outflow it, Ced. It was pretty spectacular – though he did get caught by the tail of the dragon at one point." Cedric winced, remembering the vicious spikes the Horntail carried.

"At least everyone made it out ok. That was pretty intense."

Jon hummed his agreement. At that moment a younger Hufflepuff came into the tent. "Professor Dumbledore has requested that all Champions come into the stadium."

With a raised brow at Jonathon, Cedric duly followed the young student, leaving Jon to his own devices. He decided to head back to the castle - watching his close friend go head to head with a dragon had rattled his nerves. Besides, there was a party in the Hufflepuff common room that needed to be organised and who better to do it than him?

Hermione woke the next day feeling better than she had for ages. Harry had taken on the first task of the tournament and had survived. Admittedly there were still two tasks to go and she had a sinking feeling that it didn't get better from here, but at least there was a reprieve. In addition, finally Harry and Ron had made up, which took a lot of pressure off her as a go between. Last night at dinner there had been a notable shift in attitude toward Harry. Yes, some of the Slytherins and an odd Hufflepuff were still openly hostile but the rest of the school and the international students were showing Harry a grudging respect. This was probably helped by the sight of Cedric Diggory coming over to the Gryffindor table and loudly congratulating Harry on a great performance, with visible disappointment that due to his injuries he had been unable to see it firsthand and had to rely on reports. Given half of his face was still covered in luminous orange burn paste at the time this had a considerable impact and she had smiled happily at him when she caught his eye as he turned to return to the Hufflepuff table.

Hermione scratched Crookshanks as he purred contentedly on her bed, stretched out alongside her with his tummy turned to her. She knew better than to touch his stomach though, it was a quick way to lose your fingers. Instead she found his favourite spot on his head and spent some time just bonding with him, relieved that there was a minor reprieve in tournament preparations. Although the next task would take some thought just to find out what it was – Harry had come back from a meeting with the organisers stating that the golden egg was the clue, but when they had opened it during the party last night it just screeched horribly. Hermione had begun to think about what to research in the library, but the task was a long way away and there was a lot of school work to get through beforehand.

Life almost returned to normal. Only almost, because there was a particularly annoying reporter who seemed to turn up inappropriately wherever Harry seemed to be, followed a couple of days later by salacious gossip in the paper. There was also the tournament looming over them, and despite Harry's assurances she was pretty sure that he hadn't solved the egg puzzle yet as she thought he would come to her for advice on the subsequent task. Additionally, she seemed to keep bumping into Victor Krum. Hermione didn't have anything against Krum himself, but the group of girls that dogged his footsteps were incredibly irritating and she had taken to ducking into different corridors or even some secret passages – thank you marauders… - every time she saw him coming.

The other major difference to any other year was the approaching Yule ball. The anticipation ramped as the school moved into December, and one day Hermione found herself stood with the rest of the Gryffindors from fourth year up being lectured by Professor McGonagall regarding the importance of being able to dance so as to not show up Hogwarts in front of the other schools. Of course, dance was a loose interpretation of the shuffle that was happening around the transfiguration classroom in Hermione's opinion.

After the session Professor McGonagall had held Harry back, which led to a panic stricken Harry ten minutes later when he found out that not only did he have to dance, he had to do it to open the ball! This also meant he would – shock horror – need to find a girl to ask.

Hermione wasn't really expecting to get a date to the ball, and really thought she would probably end up going with Neville maybe, or Harry or Ron when they asked her as a last resort – if they did remember her at all. Failing that, she would go alone, as she didn't need to be taken by a boy to have fun. Still, she wanted to be ready to dance, so that she could enjoy herself regardless of whether she had a date or was dateless. This led to her spending on Saturday afternoon in an empty classroom with a wizarding radio that Professor Flitwick had promised was magicked to play similar music to that likely to be played during the ball.

She had her notes from the dance class – yes she had taken notes in the dance class, there was nothing wrong with that – and was practicing some of the simpler steps. Dancing did not come naturally to her, she had all the grace of a startled kangaroo, but she was determined to at least learn the basics so that she could take a few turns on the dance floor.

With the music playing loudly and her notes in hand, Hermione was completely unaware that someone else had entered the room until there was a loud bang behind her. She spun around towards the door, to find Cedric Diggory sheepishly righting a desk he had just knocked over.

"Sorry," The Hufflepuff raised his hands placatingly. "I didn't realise you were in here. I normally come in here during free periods to revise practical work."

Embarrassed, Hermione just ducked her head and went to gather the radio. Cedric's hand on her arm stopped her.

"Were you practicing dance?"

"Yes, I didn't want to be shown up at the ball. But I'll get out of your way now. Just…could you please not tell anyone about this?" Hermione went to move again but Cedric's hand still restrained her. He was looking at her with a contemplative expression. After a pause he spoke again.

"Well, you aren't going to learn very well alone." Cedric had obviously made his mind up, as he steered Hermione back into the centre of the room.

"What?" She squeaked, taken by surprise.

"Besides," the boy continued as though he hadn't heard her. "I'm meant to be opening the ball and I dare say I need the practice too, it's been a very long time since I last danced properly. And before you ask, the shambles that was our lesson with Professor Sprout does not count." Cedric shuddered in remembered horror. Hermione thought of the Gryffindor lesson and then imposed the more disorganised Professor Sprout onto it – it did not bear thinking about.

With a wave of his wand the radio started playing again, a waltz this time. Cedric gently positioned her hands correctly. "Remember, a waltz is three steps, and swap feet each time. Otherwise, just follow my lead."

He started to rotate around the room, guiding Hermione along with him. Trying to remember the steps and the position, she was almost impossibly rigid and despite Cedric's best efforts was stumbling and stepping on his feet. Very soon Cedric called a stop to it.

"I think you're trying too hard to memorise the steps." He stated, gingerly rubbing a foot.

"Well of course I am," Hermione replied, confused. "How else am I supposed to learn it?"

"You need to let me lead," the older boy told her, letting go of her and rummaging in his bag. "It almost doesn't matter what type of dance you are meant to be doing, if you listen carefully to the music and let your partner lead you will be fine. It's one of the benefits of being female," he added ruefully. "Males can't get away with it as we are the ones meant to be leading. Of course, you could still have absolutely no sense of timing or rhythm and then no amount of leading will help."

"What if I have no rhythm?" Hermione panicked.

"You'll be fine," Cedric said reassuring, straightening up from his bag with something in his hand. "When I came in I saw enough to know you can sense the best of the music. Now we just have to get you to relax and trust your partner. Here." He held out the item he had collected from his bag, and Hermione could see it was his Hufflepuff house scarf. "Tie this around your eyes. It will force you to follow my lead."

Hesitating, Hermione slowly held out her hand and took the scarf from Cedric. She loosely tied it around her head, hating how vulnerable she felt doing so. She felt surrounded by Cedric, from the smell of grass that must come from the quidditch pitch to the musk of the light aftershave he worse. Hands gently steered her shoulders into position and then placed her hands once more in the dancing pose.

"Let me lead this time."

He sounded so much closer than before. Hermione wanted to jerk back and rip the covering from her eyes but forced herself to relax, taking deep breaths. The music started again, and she was gently guided around the room in time to the music. Initially she was as stiff as before, but then she slowly relaxed and focussed on the music and the gentle pressure from Cedric's hands. Almost instantly their dancing became smoother, and they moved in synchronisation along to the soft music in the room. Cedric began to get a bit daring and included twirls and dips, amazed by how trusting the younger girl was. Hermione was enjoying the effortless feeling that came with dancing properly in tune with a partner – yes her technique wouldn't win her any awards but she was enjoying herself. It was nice to just relax and let somebody else take control for once.

Both students were so caught up that they lost track of time. When the music came to an end, Hermione removed the scarf from her eyes and looked up at Cedric, who cleared his throat and awkwardly moved backwards to put some distance back between them. "Feel better?" He asked gruffly.

"Much, thank you!" Hermione beamed. Cedric smiled and then looked at his watch. "Goodness, I need to go. See you around, Granger."

The Hufflepuff shot away, leaving a slightly bewildered Hermione behind him still holding on to his scarf. She went into the corridor and tried to call after him but he was gone before she could get his attention.

A polite cough informed her that she wasn't alone. Turning, she realised Victor Krum stood behind her, hooded eyes drawn close in a frown as he studied the scarf in her hand. Eyes darting, she tried to find an escape route before she realised the corridor was deserted. This meant she didn't have any excuse not to talk to Victor, but also meant that his fan club wasn't here to irritate her.

"You are…how do you say…datting Mr Diggory?" The Bulgarian queried, looking at the item she held. Hermione coloured as she realised how it must look, running out of a deserted classroom after Cedric clutching his house scarf. She hastily shoved it into her bag.

"Oh no, he was just helping me with something and forgot his scarf." Seeing Victor's disbelieving face and not wanting any rumours to spread – it was bad enough after that article in the Daily Prophet - Hermione came clean. "He was helping me to dance, I haven't done it very much and I want to be able to dance at the ball."

"You haff a partner?" The intensity in his gaze was a bit disconcerting to Hermione, she shuffled whilst awkwardly looking at her feet.

"Well no…but I may still get the opportunity to dance even if I go alone."

"Would you go to ball wif me?"

Hermione started at him in disbelief. "Did someone set you up to do this? A dare?"

"Dare? Where you haff to do silly things for pride? No, I ask because I want to take as partner." His gaze was so earnest that Hermione thought he may just be telling the truth.

"But, why? I'm just a swotty fourth year and I don't even like quidditch much."

"Yes!" Victor nodded eagerly. "You are not fan! You are pretty and smart and talk more than 'Oh Victor, I luff that amaaazing move you do in World Cup. Maybe we can go ride your broomstick and you can show me.' ". The quidditch star looked horrified at the though.

"Well, ok then," and now Hermione smiled prettily at the Bulgarian. "In that case, Victor, I would love to accompany you to the Yule Ball."

The answering smile lit up the corridor, transforming the surly face into one that, if not quite handsome, was certainly very striking. "Thank you Hermy-own. I look forward to it now."

With that he was gone, hurrying away down the corridor to try to leave before his fan club found him. Hermione stood there in a minor state of shock. "I have a date to the ball." She murmured to herself, beginning to walk towards Gryffindor tower. "Victor Krum is my date to the Yule ball." She pinched herself just to check. "Cedric Diggory was teaching me how to dance and Victor Krum is my date. Could today get any stranger?"


End file.
